CSV Architects is currently designing a building for Ottawa Salus that will be Canada's first multi-storey Passive House project. "Architects Sonia Zouari and Anthony Leaning are designing the 42-unit structure for people with mental illnesses, many of whom would otherwise be homeless".

"Lisa Ker, Salus’s executive director, says she believes the Passive House construction, which will mean the project will incur significantly lower energy costs for heating and air conditioning when it is completed, will provide genuine savings to taxpayers over many years, and the costs of building to Passive House standards shouldn’t increase the initial construction budget significantly".

"Can we build residential, institutional and commercial structures that consume virtually no energy, at initial construction costs close to conventionally-built structures, while providing sustainable and high comfort, in any kind of climate? The answer, says Günter Lang, leader of the Austrian national Passivhaus (Passive House) network, is “yes” – and in the process, he says the international climate change problem could be resolved without complex or draconian measures. Lang and Malcolm Isaacs, director of the Canadian Passive House Institute (CanPHI), outlined the performance-based Passive House concept at a Construction Specifications Canada (CSC) Ottawa chapter event on Sept. 26".

CSV supported this fantastic CSC Ottawa chapter event. You can read more about it here.